ANAHEIM – There was a cautionary tale about trade-deadline deals on the mound at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night. But he wasn't pitching for the home team.

The Angels battered Indians right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez for four runs in the first and fourth innings on their way to a 9-6 victory over the Indians, snapping a three-game losing streak and gaining a game on both the Rangers and A's in the AL West.

On the other side, right-hander Zack Greinke allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings to get his first victory since the Angels acquired him from the Milwaukee Brewers for three top prospects before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

In four starts with the Angels, though, Greinke has been neither bad – nor as good as the Angels probably thought the 2009 Cy Young Award winner would be. He is 1-1 with a 5.54 ERA since arriving as the prize pickup of this year's mid-season trade market.

"They were doing fine without me. I didn't feel too much pressure with that," Greinke said of trying to live up to expectations.

"The Oakland game (his previous start) – I can't say this enough. That was as bad as I've thrown in my life. I felt awful. I don't know how I only gave up four runs (in five innings). The other three games were just normal for me. I wish I hadn't given up as many runs as I did. Sometimes you give up runs. Sometimes you don't. But so far, I feel I've done pretty decent."

The Cleveland Indians' big trade-deadline move last year can only aspire to "pretty decent."

Sitting a game-and-a-half out in the AL Central on July 30 last year, the Indians sent two of their top pitching prospects to the Rockies in exchange for Jimenez. That didn't work out so well. They finished the 2011 season 15 games out in their division and Jimenez has gone 13-16 with a 5.45 ERA as an Indian.

The first five Angels batters reached base against him Tuesday and four eventually came around to score on RBI singles by Torii Hunter, Kendrys Morales, Mark Trumbo and Chris Iannetta. After going hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position Monday (including six strikeouts) and 5 for 39 in their previous five games, the Angels had hits in each of their first three at-bats in those situations against Jimenez.

"I've played this game awhile and I can tell you – that's just baseball," Hunter said. "This team, we know we should be better, have a better record. We've got the best player on the planet in here in Mike Trout. We've got Albert Pujols, the best hitter of our decade. I definitely feel we should be doing better.

"But we just talked among ourselves (after Monday's loss) and decided we start today and win. When tomorrow gets here, we worry about that."

The Angels chased Jimenez in the fourth inning with another four-run burst built on a solo home run by Erick Aybar and a three-run homer by Pujols. It was Pujols' 26th home run of the season and major-league high 12th since July 15.

The win was only the fourth in 13 games this month for the Angels. But the split of the first two games against the Indians gives them a chance to win a series for the first time since July 23-25.

"I don't know," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said when asked if one win could reverse the Angels' slide in August. "If you're talking about frustration – yeah, there's always going to be frustration when you're not where you want to be or what your record is. But I don't know if one win is going to change that. It's just one game. You want to carry it over.

"I think the confidence is going to build in our team when we start to roll out there with a chance to win every night, no matter who we're playing. We saw it for 2 ½ months. We did it. We need to get back into that game."

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